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5/14/2014

With Drug Cartel Violence Rampant, Mexican government cracks down on citizens ("vigilantes") who are trying to protect themselves

With Mexico's extremely strict gun control laws failing to stop drug cartels from getting a hold of weapons, the Mexican government is using its resources to making sure that private citizens aren't able to defend themselves. From the Washington Post:

While the “self-defense” movement has been celebrated in many corners of Mexico, it has also produced embarrassing images of teenage vigilantes running highway checkpoints and brandishing AK-47s and other weapons that are supposed to be illegal.

The government of President Enrique Peña Nieto began demobilizing the militias this weekend and replacing them with a new force, the Rural Police, whose ranks will be drawn from the vigilantes themselves.

But the government’s demobilization push has also created the potential for new clashes: between Mexican security forces and militiamen, but also among rival militias, including those that have boycotted the process and allege their former comrades are morphing into new, government-sanctioned criminal groups. . . . .

“Everyone is afraid that the government will make a deal and the cartel will come back,” said Eriberto Sanchez, a portly 30-year-old militiaman standing at a roadside bunker of fraying sandbags, a mother-of-pearl-handled Colt .38 pistol tucked in his belt. “We don’t have an honest government.”

If Mexican police and soldiers try to forcibly disarm the militias, “a lot of blood will be spilled,” he said. . . .